{"id":34055,"date":"2023-03-24T09:18:27","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T03:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34055"},"modified":"2025-04-20T08:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T03:01:12","slug":"ipcc-and-assessment-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ipcc-and-assessment-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"IPCC and Assessment Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About IPCC Assessment Reports<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Key Highlights of the Synthesis Report<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How India\u2019s Compensatory Afforestation Policy is at odds with IPCC\u2019s Synthesis Report?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, on March 20<sup>th<\/sup>, the <i><strong>Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.<\/li>\n<li>It was created in <strong>1988<\/strong> by the <strong>World Meteorological Organization<\/strong> (WMO) and the <strong>United Nations Environment Programme<\/strong> (UNEP).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective<\/strong> <strong>\u2013 <\/strong>To provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies.<\/li>\n<li><i><strong>The IPCC does not conduct its own research<\/strong><\/i>. Thousands of people from all over the world voluntarily contribute to the work of the IPCC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About IPCC Assessment Reports<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>IPCC<\/strong> prepares comprehensive <strong>Assessment Reports<\/strong> about knowledge on climate change, its causes, potential impacts and response options.<\/li>\n<li>Since its inception in 1988, the <i><strong>IPCC has had six assessment cycles and delivered six Assessment Reports, the most comprehensive scientific reports about climate change produced worldwide<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>The current report, 6<sup>th<\/sup> Assessment Report, is divided into three segments i.e. its three Working Groups and a Synthesis Report.<\/li>\n<li>The three working group reports have already been published.<\/li>\n<li>The Synthesis Report was published as recently as 20<sup>th<\/sup> March, 2023.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Key Highlights of the Synthesis Report<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>This Synthesis Report of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) <i><strong>summarises the state of knowledge of climate change, its widespread impacts and risks, and climate change mitigation and adaptation<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>It integrates the main findings of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) based on contributions from the three Working Groups, and the three Special Reports.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Current Status of Climate Change \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Global surface temperature was <i><strong>1.09\u00b0C higher in 2011\u20132020 than 1850\u20131900<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>There is a larger increase over land (1.59\u00b0C) than over the ocean (0.88\u00b0C).<\/li>\n<li>In 2019, <i><strong>atmospheric CO2 concentrations were higher than at any time in at least 2 million years<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li><i><strong>Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide were higher than at any time in at least 800,000 years<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li><i><strong>Global mean sea level increased by 0.20 m between 1901 and 2018<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Although overall agricultural productivity has increased, climate change has slowed this growth over the past 50 years globally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Future Climate Change \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In the near term (<strong>2021-2040<\/strong>), global warming is more likely than not to reach <strong>1.5\u00b0C<\/strong> even under the very low GHG emission scenario.<\/li>\n<li>Compound heatwaves and droughts are projected to become more frequent, including concurrent events across multiple locations.<\/li>\n<li>Due to relative sea level rise, <i><strong>current 1-in-100 year extreme sea level events are projected to occur at least annually in more than half of all tide gauge locations by 2100 under all considered scenarios<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Climate Change Adaptation &amp; their Limits \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Climate change adaptation is the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects.<\/li>\n<li>Adaptation options that are feasible and effective today will become constrained and less effective with increasing global warming.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How India\u2019s Compensatory Afforestation Policy is at odds with IPCC\u2019s Synthesis Report?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Afforestation is codified in the <i><strong>Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)<\/strong><\/i>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CAMPA is meant to promote afforestation and regeneration activities as a way of compensating for forest land diverted to non-forest uses.<\/li>\n<li>It was established on the Supreme Court\u2019s orders in 2002.<\/li>\n<li>Afforestation is also a part of India\u2019s climate pledges \u2013\n<ul>\n<li>The government has committed to adding \u201c<i><strong>an additional (cumulative) carbon sink of 2.5-3 GtCO2e through additional forest and tree cover by 2030<\/strong><\/i>\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>\u2018GtCO2e\u2019 stands for gigatonnes of carbon-dioxide-equivalent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>However, the IPCC\u2019s latest Synthesis Report has pointed out that not <i><strong>degrading existing ecosystems in the first place will do more to lower the impact of the climate crisis than restoring ecosystems (through afforestation) that have been destroyed<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>When forest land is diverted to non-forest use, such as a dam or a mine, that land can longer provide its historical ecosystem services nor host biodiversity.<\/li>\n<li>The report also highlights that <i><strong>climate action, such as technologies to combat climate change, renewable energy farms, etc. should not come at the cost of natural ecosystems<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What do you mean by Climate Mitigation?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Climate change mitigation is <strong>action to limit climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or removing those gases from the atmosphere<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong> <strong>What is Greenhouse Effect?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Carbon dioxide and water vapour absorb infrared radiations coming to the earth and partly reflect it back to the earth&#8217;s surface<\/strong>. Due to this, the surface of the earth gets heated up. This phenomenon is called the greenhouse effect.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/campa-fund-compensatory-afforestation-ipcc-synthesis-report\/article66649373.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>India\u2019s disputed compensatory afforestation policy at odds with new IPCC report<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\/report\/sixth-assessment-report-cycle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>IPCC<\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IPPC is involved in assessing science related to climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}